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San Francisco has an awkward relationship with extreme wealth. City politics tilt to the left end of the spectrum, yet such civic treasures as the Giants‘ ballpark and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass exist because of private largesse.

The challenge is to accept the benefits but also know when to say no – as is now the case with the most blatantly elitist aspect of the America’s Cup scheduled for 2013.

If Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and organizers of the high-profile regatta get their way, the Embarcadero’s widest stretch of open water would be turned into a parking lot for two dozen spectator yachts at least 100 feet long. The rich and famous would have access to this watery perch not for a matter of days or weeks, but for the months leading up to and including the storied regatta.

Nor does the imposition end there. If the basin alongside Rincon Park requires dredging to accommodate a class of ships where size most emphatically matters, regatta organizers have the option to turn the basin into a commercial marina. Today’s wide-open views might never return.

America’s Cup boosters say spectacle is a big part of the show, and they’re right. But no short-term private event is worth the long-term loss of irreplaceable portions of our public realm.

Hypnotic and broad

Known officially as Rincon Point Open Water Basin, the quarter-mile stretch of bay between piers 14 and 22.5 was created in the 1980s by removing decrepit finger piers no longer needed by the port. Rincon Park followed with a grassy hillock crowned by the controversial but eye-catching Cupid’s Span sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

In daytime, the broad views are wondrous. At night, there’s a hypnotic beauty, as anyone can testify who has paused after a Giants game to absorb the illuminated sweep of the Bay Bridge above rippling darkness.

The importance of the space is spelled out in the Bay Plan of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which describes basins as essential to “enhance the ecological health of the Bay and … provide new and substantial Bay views.” The importance of the open water along Rincon Park is reaffirmed in the draft environmental impact report for the America’s Cup that was released by the city last month – it is the only one of 18 race-related locations ranked “very high” in terms of visual quality and sensitivity.

The draft report also offers the only details released so far of the changes desired by the America’s Cup Event Authority, the operational and development arm of the regatta.

The proposal would add a 1,300-foot-long, 12-foot-wide floating dock to the “open water basin venue,” reached by gangplanks at either end. A diagram shows 26 vessels moored to the dock, none shorter than 100 feet and 10 with hulls extending 265 feet from stem to stern.

By comparison, the largest ferries now plying the bay are 165 feet long.

A wall of wealth

Here’s another comparison: While large sailing yachts can be low-slung and sleek, the motorized versions tend to resemble small cruise ships. A 250-foot-long superyacht might easily be 40 feet wide and 50 feet tall; these are roughly the dimensions of the yacht Katana once owned by Ellison, whose passion for sailing is why the America’s Cup is headed our way.

Come 2013, we could be confronted by a row of floating fashion statements, a wall of wealth dropping anchor for the better part of the summer. And it wouldn’t be integral to the event, a la the America’s Cup Village at Piers 27-29 or the team bases that would spill into the basin south of Piers 30-32. It would exist for the convenience of the privileged few.

All this elicits a shrug from the draft environmental report. Yes, “temporary berthing of large spectator boats” along Rincon Park “would temporarily block expansive public views of open waters of San Francisco Bay.” But the visual impact is judged “less than significant” since the Cup as a whole would attract people to the bay and expose them to a unique maritime activity.

And after the America’s Cup concludes?

According to the “host agreement” between the city and the event authority, long-term development rights in the Rincon basin are triggered if the temporary berths require dredging. Dredging would also trigger development rights in the waters south of Piers 30-32, the Brannan Street Wharf Open Water Basin.

Long-range threat

This means that, legally, Ellison et al can try to install recreational marinas in each now-protected open (water) space. The environmental report states “there are no conceptual proposals … to analyze at this time,” but it estimates the Rincon basin could hold 425 slips for smaller vessels, while the Brannan Street basin could accommodate 90 slips for yachts up to 200 feet in length. The report also concedes that long-term marinas are at odds with established plans for the waterfront and bay.

No kidding.

It’s embarrassing that city negotiators left such a large loophole in an agreement focused on other sections of the waterfront. The environmental review offers the chance to reverse course and remind event organizers that the Embarcadero isn’t theirs to do with as they will – especially since even short-term use of either basin requires the blessing of the BCDC, which has final say over changes to the perimeter of the bay.

Make no mistake: The America’s Cup can be a boon to our region. The races will offer a vivid show and an economic boost; they’ll spur event-funded improvements to piers that otherwise might continue to decay. The development that follows, done well, can further lace downtown San Francisco to the bay.

But we also need to remember that it never hurts to look a gift horse in the mouth. And the open water along Rincon Park is not a cavity that needs to be filled.

See the report

The draft environmental impact report for the 34th America’s Cup is available at sfg.ly/ppJxTb. Public comments can be filed until Aug. 25.